D&D 5E Zombie, skeleton and other undead templates?

[ArwensDaughter]

I'm working on an adventure based on the backstory of one of the PCs. She was taken in by a pack of wolves, who were later forced to leave their home territory because it became defiled/polluted. One aspect of this was that any animals that died or were killed came back to "life" as undead versions of themselves. The wolves eventually sent her out into "the world" the gain the wisdom/experience needed to help them regain their territory.

So I need to be able to create zombie, skeleton and/or other undead versions of various beasts. I wish the MM had "templates" for this purpose as they do for some other variations. Since there are both zombie and skeleton variants of other creatures in the MM, I realize that I can reverse engineer a template for both, but wondered if anyone had already done with them and/or with other undead.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Your best starting point for this would probably be to go over to DMs Guild and do a search for additional monster packs. Maybe you'll find templates, but you might also just find new undead monster statblocks of the types you were looking for.

I know that when I went looking for additional NPC blocks for the CRs in and around the ones in the MM, several items were written and published that filled that void. Same thing with other additional blocks for many of the primary humanoid monster races-- orcs, kobolds, goblins etc. So I would not be surprised if there were other articles over there that do the same for the undead (especially considering Ravenloft was added to their publishing allowance.)

 

[Tormyr]

Based off the skeletons in the MM:
Type: Undead
Alignment: Lawful Evil
CON 15
Speaking Creatures INT 6
Non-speaking creatures INT 2
WIS 8
CHA 5
Damage Vulnerabilities: Bludgeoning
Damage Immunities: Poison
Condition Immunities: Exhausted, Poisoned
Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Understands any languages it learned in life, but cannot speak.
Keep everything else about the creature the same within reason. The CR should stay roughly the same.

Based off the zombies in the MM:
Type Undead
Alignment: Neutral Evil
AC 8 (unless it would be based on something other than DEX)
DEX 6
INT 3
WIS 6
CHA 5
Proficiency in WIS saving throw (-2+proficiency bonus)
Damage Immunity poison
Condition Immunity poisoned
Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 8
Understands languages it knew in life but cannot speak
Undead Fortitude trait
Keep everything else about the creatures the same within reason. The CR should stay roughly the same or drop slightly depending on AC. If you have a way of keeping the AC the same, the CR won't change much.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

Thanks to you both! Most of the undead collections at DMsGuild didn't provide enough of what I was looking for BUT I did find a "Tome of Templates" with 3 undead templates (Ghostly, Vampiric, and Zombified), which fits the bill perfectly.

And thanks, Tormyr, for your templates, especially the skeleton one!

 

[pukunui]

The Quick NPCs table in the DMG has templates of a sort for skeletons and zombies.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

The Quick NPCs table in the DMG has templates of a sort for skeletons and zombies.

I didn't even think to look there! Thanks!